S&P slashes Nokia's credit rating to junk

From CNET News.com: Just when things couldn't get much worse for Nokia -- the mobile phone maker's credit rating is taking it on the chin.

Standard & Poor's today cut the rating for the Finnish mobile phone maker to junk, anticpating lower sales ahead.

Following a similar move by Fitch Ratings earlier this week, S&P cut Nokia's rating to BB+ from BBB-. BB+ is considered the highest speculative grade, "speculative" being another word for junk.

S&P said that the weaker rating reflects a lower estimate for sales from Nokia's Devices and Services division this year along with a revised forecast on profits and cash flow.

"We now believe that revenues from the Devices and Services division could decline in 2012 by the same extent as in 2011 (minus 18 percent) after Nokia reported first-quarter 2012 revenues below our expectations, particularly for Symbian-based smartphones," S&P said in a statement.

Nokia last week announced a huge loss for its first quarter. Its Symbian phones continue to shed market share. The company has been hedging its bets on its new Windows Phone-based Lumia handsets, but sales have yet to take off on a global scale.

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